Angelfall: Penryn and the End of Days

Today I'm going to review a book that I absolutely ADORED! In fact, you seriously need to read my review so you can convince yourself to check this one out too!

Cover Beauty Score: 6 out of 10

Good Reads Score: 5 out of 5

Plot Blurb: The book starts with a young girl, Penryn, and her crazy mom and her cripple little sister surviving the the post-apocalyptic streets of Los Angeles. We soon learn that the angels have come to earth and have brought about something like the biblical Revelation where the angels are killing humans. Essentially society is completely destroyed and there are scavengers and cannibals and other gross apocalyptic stuff. So as Penryn and her mom and sister move across the city they encounter a few angels attacking one white winged angel. Penryn ends up kind of helping him, but the evil angels/demons get away with her little sister in the process. Her crazy mom makes a run for it and leaves Penryn to help this one angel that is almost (but not quite) dead. Penryn essentially blackmails the guy, Raffe, and together they make their way across the countryside to try and find her angel-napped sister.

My reaction: I have to admit, this sounded a little cheesy when I first picked it up, but it was free on Amazon Prime so I thought I'd give it a try because the reviews were so awesome. And boy, was I not disappointed! Literally the only negative thing I can think of is that it was so short. The writing was concise and to the point, yet incredibly funny! I felt like Penryn and Raffe had such good chemistry that it literally carried the entire book. Their relationship was very believable, and thank God there is a YA romance out there that doesn't revolve around a triangle. How sick am I of the best guy friend being in love with the heroine? I'll tell ya, really tired. It's been too long since I've seen a book where the two leads hate one another and grudgingly come to love one another. This, my friends, is a tale as old as time, and it just works.

In regards to the writing itself, I think it was very well done. It could be considered a little choppy, but that seemed to work with the story. I find myself a lover of flowery wording... I prefer prose that borders on poetry, and this book certainly wasn't filled with that. But the plotting was well done, and there were some twists that I didn't see coming, for certain. It was surprisingly graphic, which added a touch of realism and horror that was great for the book.

In all, by the time I finished the thing I was looking for the second one to buy right away. I was bummed to discover that not only does the second one not come out until October (bummer!), but this is Susan Ee's first book. What? How has she not written anything else? Are you ready for this?

Angelfall was rejected by too many agents/publishers that Ee decided to self publish this beauty. WHAT!? How did anyone pass this puppy up? I hope they are kicking themselves in their little tushies because Ee is now making a considerable percentage of her profits because she decided to go the self-publishing route. And I'm thankful for that, because then we wouldn't have this wonderful story to enjoy!

On a side note, this certainly gives struggling writers (hello!? me!) some hope. If my agent/publishing house dreams don't pan out, I can always self publish and tell all those naysayers to shove it!

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We're all stories in the end...

My name is Jessica and I love to write. I love to read. I love the smell of books. I love the feel of them. I even enjoy a good Kindle read every once in a while.
I'm just a girl who majored in English Lit but now works as a graphic/web designer, moonlighting as a writer trying to make it in the publishing world.
I love sharing what I learn through the written word and I'd love for you to be a part of that with me! Go brew a pot of tea and get ready to get to know me...